Howdy folks. This is my first post and I'm a little unfamiliar with the forum, so this has probably been brought up a thousand times before and I just couldn't find it.
So, I've been building robots for 2+ years with a buddy of mine. Typically, we brainstorm an idea and I handle the physical building/tinkering, and he handles the programming. Lately, we've been trying to shake things up and build bots that require more complex programming to preform more complex (autonomous) tasks, which take much longer for one man with a full-time job to work through. So naturally, I want to help out a bit. This leaves me at a disadvantage as I have very little coding knowledge outside of some limited basic/html. My buddy became fluent in C++ thanks to his job but I'm not so lucky, and wish to learn to program on my own.
So I guess what I'm asking is, where should I start? I was looking into securing a copy of Robot Programmer's Bonanza, as it seems to be the favorite of many. I know that it focuses on RobotBASIC, which I did some research on and it seems somewhat limited. (I also have a few Arduinos readily available to toy with, and I'm not sure if they support RobotBASIC.)
In the end, I'm looking to work my way up to becoming fluent in a language that will offer the most return for my time. Should I dive right into learning C++ (or something similar) or use a less complex language as a stepping-stone? Any advice is much appreciated, and if this has been addressed in a previous thread you can just link me to it to save time and energy!
Cheers!